, 1887-06-23
With Our Exchanges,

OrcyoajaD: At Il vrry late hour
We have information from Nashing-
ton that the president has withdrawn
( the order 10 restore the flags. His
! brutal iuscusibility has been overcome
hy the fierce public Indignation. The
rrtraction comes III time to prevent
the intended Outrage, bat not in time
{" -hIe!d tie president from the
righteous wrath of the nation. De
cency and propTiety are not the
motives Of this action. These are
considerations which Cleveland does
not appreciate. Fear Of consequences
to himself has prompted him, and
this alone.
The New York TribHnc'S Washing
ton special says: -Clevelands rever-
sal of the order TO restore the rebel
battle flags came too late He rascind
ed the order most reluctantly and
simply aud solely because its cxecu-
ton. III his opinion, would be viola
ton of law. There Is reason to be
heye that the cabinet was unanimous
III favor of the reversal of the order.
An effort Is being made 10 have it
appear that the president acted by
lnadvertance and that General Drum
is responsible The best answer is
the declaration OF Drum himself, who
IS IN old army officer. he says the
president recommended the return of
the flags"
OregORidR: The effort to get
democratic collector of customs at
Portland has succeeded at last. 1t
would have succeeded long ago, Lad
the democrats of Oregon been able to
agree upon the subject. Mr.. Hyman
Abrams, who finally gets it, Is a
democrat from way back and we
have no doubt Is entirely competent
to fill the Office. lir Shurtleff, whom
he superscdes, has been collector
about SIX years, and has been an
excellent officer. 1t was still Il year
or more till the end of his term, but
as he is not Il democrat lie has to go.
BY the way, 1t Is not apparent that
this administration, though it pro-
fesses to have introduced new rule
in the management of the public
service, which it calls civil service
reform or something of that kind.
puts things on less distinCtively
partisan basis than the republicans
did. But one Office OF any note in
Oregon remains in the hands of a
republican, the United States mar
shdlship-and no doubt in that office
also change will soon be made.
Democrats here expect it to be made
at once"
An exchange says that a former
New York newspaper man, who is
now Il practicing lawyer on the Pacific
coast, sends tho Casual some inter~
esting points concerning Eugene
Semple, the newly appointed gover-
nor of Washington Territory To
begin with, Semple is a man possess
sed of what are sometimes called old
fashioned ideas of honesty and duty.
He springs from family well known
in Illinois aud Missouri, graduated as
4 lawer from the ST. Louis law school,
migrated to the Pacific coast, became
proprietor of a newspaper and mar
ried a wealthy lady. He locked
horns with Ben Holladay, and they
had long, bitter fight. Semple sunk
a fortune in the newspaper, and the
fight broke up both himself and Hol-
laday, and he was thrown into bank
ruptcy. He paid % cents on the
dollar on his assets At that time he
was state printer in Oregon, and he
cleared $4,000 in publishing the code
of statutes (coditied by Deady) As
soon as he got the cash he put it in a
grip sack and walked around paying
100 cents on the dollar in every house
where he owed anything until the
money was exhausted. On one Occa-
sion he was engaged to defend man
accused of revolving and unnatural
crime. Mr. Semple took the case
because he felt convinced in the
prisoners protestations of innocence,
and one of the points iii his argument
before the jury was that God AL
mighty would not permit Il man guilty
of such Il crime to livew The verdict
was for acquittal, after which the
prisoner sneaked mp to Semple's Office,
planked down $500 in gold and said:
''Tha: was close call, squire, but I'll
never do it again. Semple sprang
up with a I,ardonable oath, caught
the scOundrel by the back of the neck.
kicked him all the way TO the street
and there flung him into the gutter,
pelting the roll of gold on top of his
late client rs if the metal were in